Charging to change name on airline ticket

After some advice...
I booked airline tickets for our honeymoon in the summer a few months ago. I booked them in my maiden name (as that was the name on my credit card and husband does not have a credit card). My passport needed to be changed into my married name as it was up less than a month after the wedding. I naively thought it would be easy to change my name on the plane ticket (and obviously did not read their t&c's properly, so this is my own fault I know). I was expecting a small charge for the change, but BA want to charge me nearly &pound;50. I realise I'm lucky that they are not charging me for a new ticket, however I baulk at this high cost. Do you think I should attempt to complain or am I wasting my time? Would be grateful for advice if anyone has made this mistake before.

you ought to ring them really, coz it may cause trouble that the named card holder isn't travelling. Even tho you are the card holder. My friend had terrible trouble with BA trying to solve that one. You'd have thought a large airline would have systems in place for dealing with women who book honeymoon holidays and also choose to change their name when they marry.

It's a common airline con, internet forums are full of incidents like yours.

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Not really a con. It does clearly says that the name on ticket must be the same as passport. Not sure why OP could not have booked her ticket under the name she was planning to have at the time of the journey/or she could just have kept her passport under her maiden name. It's not actually compulsory to change your name two minutes after getting married.

I did consider keeping my maiden name on my passport, however
as the a passport ran out in may & we travel in august, it would have stayed like that for 10 years unless I paid up again. Was expecting to pay a charge, but really after a decent reason from BA as to why they charge what seems to be an unecessarily high amount.

but really after a decent reason from BA as to why they charge what seems to be an unecessarily high amount.

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It is only unecessarily high from the point of view of one party in the transaction. They charge such a high amount because they CAN charge such a high amount. Given how cheap (in general) air travel can be, it is only through fees and charges that commercial airlines can stay profitable.
As you admit, it was entirely your error - just suck it up.

but really after a decent reason from BA as to why they charge what seems to be an unecessarily high amount.

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It is only unecessarily high from the point of view of one party in the transaction. They charge such a high amount because they CAN charge such a high amount. Given how cheap (in general) air travel can be, it is only through fees and charges that commercial airlines can stay profitable.
As you admit, it was entirely your error - just suck it up.

Unfortunately, this is a common situation and you'll end up paying.
My sister's full legal surname is a name she rarely uses, but it is on her passport. She forgot this when booking tickets and used the shorter version (which is on her credit card). It cost her quite a bit to change her ticket but it was in the T&Cs so her error.
The situation was made more stressful by a challenge from border control over the fact that in a family of 2 adults and 4 children, there were 3 different surnames. You would think officials would realise by now that families are not necessarily Mr and Mrs and their 2.4 children.

I booked airline tickets for our honeymoon in the summer a few months ago. I booked them in my maiden name (as that was the name on my credit card and husband does not have a credit card). My passport needed to be changed into my married name as it was up less than a month after the wedding.

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Surely you cannot get a new passport in a new name until after the wedding, which only gives you a month to get it done and back during a very busy time. Better to renew passport now in your maiden name.
FWIW I got marriedin 2010 and still haven't changed my passport! I just book in my previous name. I'll get round to it eventually but I am lucky to travel often and there's never enough time between trips to change the thing!

I renewed it in Feb as I knew I needed to renew it before May and there's a form you get the priest/registrar to sign up to 3 months before to get it changed (so the start date was the day of the wedding). Didn't think it through and didn't read the t&c's (stupid I know)

Probably a good idea to get it sorted out now. My daughter booked tickets for her and a friend and used friend's shortened name, cath instead of catherine. When she rang the airline (not sure which one but budget) they said it would be &pound;25 to change it. After a week of trying to decide if she's get away with not changing she decided to pay for the change but the cost had gone up to &pound;50 because less than a month before travel.

Ryanair changed mine for £10 last week as I booked in married name and passport was still in maiden name - I just called them and had to fax my passport and marriage certificate, then ring the day before to confirm the change.

Would think the best thing you can do is slip in the 'we are just married' line as much as you can and maybe (maybe) they will let you off as a gift. Otherwise as others have said, this is an area airlines know they can abuse BUT they do make it abundantly clear you should check and double check the names. One letter out, you ain't going...especially to the US. I am sure if enough people complained the airlines would be ordered to take a fair fee, which is probably 5-10 pounds. Just has not happened yet, I guess.

I booked some Ryanair flights a few months ago and, although I selected Mr for Mr jubilee in the drop-down box, it ended up on the confirmed booking as Dr!
I decided not to incur hassle and/or charges to get it changed and we flew to Rome with the additional title, keeping our fingers crossed that no-one on the flight would need medical attention!